Limiting Beliefs: How to Break Free
A couple of days ago, when we were defining your dream life, I talked a bit about limiting beliefs. But, today I wanted to go deeper to break away from those negative thoughts and move forward towards your dream life.
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What are Limiting Beliefs?
Limiting beliefs are those negative thoughts that overshadow your life. They are the statements that you say about yourself, or your life, that make it so you cannot make progress. When you make these statements, either out loud or in your mind, you are holding yourself back from crafting your dream life. You want to make progress, but with all the negative self-talk, you can’t. Instead of basing your decisions on faith and encouragement, you base them on fear. And when you take action (or do nothing) due to fear, you stagnate and aren’t able to achieve the life you love.
These thoughts often come from how we were raised. The things that we heard day after day whether through teachers or peers at school, or from our own family members. It can be a challenging exercise to reframe these thoughts into positives, but that is the key to moving beyond these limiting beliefs and instead making progress towards your dream life.
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I love what the PowerSheets Goal Planner says about limiting beliefs:
A negative mindset can limit us, dictating who we are, who we aren’t, and what we can and cannot do – keeping us trapped in identity boxes
2025 PowerSheets p 14
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The First Step
The first step in changing these limiting beliefs is to recognize what they are. These oftentimes are so engrained into our thinking, that we don’t even notice them. You have always been “bad with money” and will “always struggle with it.” You aren’t “smart enough to learn that new skill.” “Why bother trying when I am just going to fail again?” You may not recognize these limiting beliefs because they aren’t necessarily conversations you have with yourself, they just make up “who you are.”
So you sit down, and write a little bit. Think about your past week or month, what are some things that you haven’t done that you may have wanted to. Why didn’t you do that thing? Was there some life change you have wanted to make but keep telling yourself it won’t work? Why won’t it work? Is it a limiting belief? It could even be something as simple as your current life situation. “I homeschool my kids, so I can’t possibly do that because I don’t have the time, money, resources.”
Once you recognize some of these thoughts you have about yourself, the deeply held beliefs about who you, as a person, are; you can start to reframe those limiting beliefs into positive statements. Some of the statements may be valid – like the last example above. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make small steps toward whatever new thing you want to try is. It just means that you will have a different pathway to get there than others. You are unique, and remembering that you are unique is important as you craft your dream life.
Reframe your Limiting Belief into a Positive Affirmation
Once you have your limiting beliefs written down, the next step is to turn them into positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are written in the present tense, telling your brain that this positive affirmation is true right now.
Positive affirmations help you in a couple of different ways. First, it gives you a boost. I am statements are one of the best ways to continue to make progress in your goals, and reframing your negative thoughts into positive affirmations can do wonders to the progress you are able to make. They help to boost your confidence, and even your self-esteem. And my favorite part is that it encourages a growth mindset.
A growth mindset is the understanding that you can continue to develop skills, talents, and abilities through hard work and persistence. It is not letting yourself become stagnant, and always seeking to improve. As homeschoolers I think it is relatively easy to build in a growth mindset to your life, and your homeschool. We are taking the time to help our kids develop, and want them to have a growth mindset. But, it doesn’t stop with our kids. We also are capable of that growth. It doesn’t always go smoothly, and there are almost always setbacks, but it is like the old adage “if you fall off a horse, get back on.” You need to keep trying.
How do you Reframe these thoughts into Positive Affirmations?
It can be challenging. When you have certain beliefs about yourself, to then sit down and completely reframe them seems difficult. You may not have the words. That is totally OK! In fact, this was a challenge for me when I first went through the exercise with my PowerSheets prep work back in 2015. I didn’t know where to start. So I started to google things, trying to figure out the right way to search things to make them into positives. The examples given in the PowerSheets helped me, but I needed a bit more.
Now you have tools like Chat GPT to help you reframe your negative beliefs about yourself into positive affirmations. I think utilizing tools like this is helpful, especially when you are stuck. Especially if this is all new to you. Take the help where you can. It may prompt you to think of other positive affirmations you want to use.
Here are a couple of examples:
The Bottom Line
As you continue to craft your dream life, you want to make sure that you are making positive improvements to your life. Will things happen in life that slow you down? Absolutely, it wouldn’t be life if it was always easy. But, we don’t have to allow those negative thoughts take over our lives. Continue to look for positive ways to view the challenges ahead, and you will make progress. It may be slow, but that is OK. Remember that slow progress is how you achieve what you want out of life.
Understanding the deeply held beliefs about ourselves as people, about our life circumstances, can be a big wake up call. Take some time to reframe these limiting beliefs into positive affirmations and then start reciting them to yourself daily, or writing them down. There is power in hearing the positive.
What one positive affirmation can you start telling yourself today?
